American Red Cross workers joined community sponsors, partners and the Philadelphia Fire Department to install free smoke alarms and provide lifesaving information about fire safety. The effort served as the region’s signature Sound the Alarm event during the 2024 campaign, which ran April 6-May 5.

Jameele Mitchell, the director of the Awbury Recreation Center where the Sound the Alarm event began, said she hopes it’s the first of many Red Cross events held there. “I’ve heard so far from volunteers and they’re just like, everyone is smiling, everybody’s happy, everybody’s engaged. You can tell it’s just a very positive day.”

Jennifer Graham, the CEO for the Red Cross in Southeastern Pennsylvania, got the crowd pumped up before they went out into the Philadelphia neighborhood. “I’m excited to Sound the Alarm with you!” she said to cheers and applause.

Jennifer explained why Sound the Alarm is so important. “We only have two minutes to escape a home fire, which is the nation’s most frequent disaster. Today, we will install free smoke alarms, which can also cut the risk of dying in a home fire by half. What we are doing today matters.”

Adam Thiel, managing director for the City of Philadelphia, said Philadelphia has “one of the highest fire death rates in the nation,” and praised the Philadelphia Fire Department and the Red Cross for their efforts to save lives.

“Thankfully, because of the number of smoke alarms that we have out there, our fire death rate isn’t as high as it used to be; however, it is still much too high. This work is as important as it has ever been,” he said.

Red Cross volunteer Marty Westermann walked door to door installing smoke alarms with a team of volunteers from Morgan Properties, one of the sponsors of the Sound the Alarm event. As a Disaster Action Team (DAT) Supervisor, Marty frequently responds to home fires and said it’s satisfying to help educate families about how to safely escape a fire before tragedy occurs.

“Especially with young kids, talk about a plan ahead of time, how to get out of the house, where to go, where the exits are, and importantly – where to meet,” he said.

Marty helped install smoke alarms at Atiya Payne’s home, where she has lived for 14 years. She was thrilled to have Red Cross teams install the smoke alarms because she has seen a lot of fires in her neighborhood.

“My biggest worry is when I sleep I don’t want to be stuck in a fire in the house and I can’t get out,” she said.

Volunteer Eric Kessler, from Morgan Properties, carried ladders and installed smoke alarms at homes like Atiya’s, testing them to make sure they worked. “Hopefully save a life if it ever comes to that,” he said.

Atiya found it especially comforting that the Red Cross team knew how to properly install the smoke alarms. “I’m so happy. Thank you all so much. You don’t know how happy I am,” she said.

Rosalyn Thornton-Palmer has lived in her home for more than 30 years and heard about a fire that happened nearby the night before the Red Cross team visited her. She was grateful to get the smoke alarms because like Atiya, her biggest fear is being trapped in her home in a fire, with no way out and no warning.

“I didn’t have any and I know there’s been fires recently around here and I couldn’t afford them, so I said, ‘let me volunteer to get them from you guys.’”

Jameelah Williams heard about the same neighborhood fire as Rosalyn, and said worry kept her awake the night it happened. “I couldn’t even sleep.”

Jameelah is disabled and didn’t know how she would make it down the stairs in time to escape a fire. She was happy to go over possible escape routes with the Red Cross team and get smoke alarms installed.

“I need enough time to hear them so I can try to get out,” she said. “I appreciate you all very much.”

The region’s Sound the Alarm signature event served 376 people in 138 homes with 513 free smoke alarms installed in the Germantown neighborhood on May 3rd.

Volunteers like Tara Maldonado from Morgan Properties ended the day feeling like she made a difference. She said it was rewarding, “Just being able to leave the situation knowing that we could have potentially saved some lives. Any time you are spreading positive education to anyone or a community is good work.”

In addition to the Philadelphia event, the Red Cross held smoke alarm installations in Newtown (Bucks County), Wyndmoor (Montgomery County) and Upper Darby (Delaware County). Collectively, during the month-long Sound the Alarm campaign, over 200 volunteers helped make 375 homes safer through the installation of 1,268 smoke alarms and the education of 991 residents!

Sound the Alarm is made possible by generous regional sponsors, including Clark & Cohen Property Loss Consultants, Independence Blue Cross, Morgan Properties, PECO and The Wawa Foundation. National partners include the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and State Farm.

Sound the Alarm is part of the year-round Red Cross Home Fire Campaign, which has installed more than 21,000 lifesaving smoke alarms in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties and more than 2.5 million smoke alarms nationwide since 2014. The campaign has also saved at least 1,749 lives nationwide, including 27 in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

To learn more about the Home Fire Campaign or if you need smoke alarms installed in your home, visit SoundTheAlarm.org/philly or call 215-299-4029.

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PHOTO: Volunteers take photos with Red Cross preparedness mascot Fred Cross prior to Sound the Alarm. Photo by Katerina Luchinina / American Red Cross

- Written by Jenny Farley